


Spin the Wheel

by paynesgrey



Category: Tower Prep
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-18
Updated: 2010-12-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 08:48:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20690753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paynesgrey/pseuds/paynesgrey
Summary: They are drawn to each other through lifetimes, but never in time for an end.





	Spin the Wheel

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the ficfest at [](http://tower-prep.livejournal.com/profile)[tower_prep](http://tower-prep.livejournal.com/) for the prompt "Reincarnations" for Cal and CJ.

He remembers the first time he knew her. The moon is large and luminous that day, and the sky is freckled with stars. Her deep auburn hair teases the wind, and in her coal eyes she pleads for him not to go.

The mud is soft under his feet as he goes to her, takes her arms and pulls her against him. The kiss he leaves with her almost makes him stay.

“I won’t forget you,” she says. She’s done enough to try and convince him to stay. They haven’t even had their wedding night.

But he must go and defend his clan, his honor and hers.

She’ll retreat back into the shades of Avalon, where she belongs, where she comes from.

He leaves and still hears her promise sting at his ears. She says she’ll never forget.

But she always does.

*

This time he’s been searching for her - not knowing it’s her that he wants, but destiny has wrapped around them like a squeezing vine.

She screams for him. They’ve known each other for a mere fortnight but they have made up for a lifetime. Then, they take her from his arms.

Without thinking, he breaks away from his family and his royal lineage to save her. They have her propped up on a stake, ready to burn.

He runs toward her into the crowd and is held back, but he kicks and punches and he reaches out his hands. He has to do something or everything will be lost. Another lifetime too close for them but never reaching an end.

The guards take him instead; destiny has no mercy. They both die that day.

*

He meets her when they are both old. He’s been fighting for patients like her all his life, never knowing why, only that he must.

“I’m sorry,” he says, and he strokes her gray hair as she sleeps. He feels weary looking at her, as if his age is catching up with him too. He’s flown all the way from Japan to save her, and for the days they’ve known each other, he’s felt he’s been with her a lot longer.

The cancer takes her and he feels like he fails again. Again and again, unable to fight his way out of this with his fists or an axe.

He holds his head in his hands and sobs. The next time he works with a patient his life feels emptier now that she’s gone.

*

Cal meets CJ the day after he arrives at Tower Prep, and immediately he knows he has to have her. He doesn't care for anyone else at this place, but if anyone makes him feel like he belongs at Tower Prep, it’s CJ Ward.

Naturally, she warms to him as well. She worries about him and cheers for him, and he makes sure everything he strives for is all for her.

But it’s never enough, not for Cal. He has to try harder, dream bigger, and give her the one gift that others won’t ever dare give her.

He’s going to break out of Tower Prep and come back to save CJ. He’s going to tear the whole place down, stone by stone, wire by wire, and take her hand and pull her from the rubble.

Then this vicious cycle can end. He can stop searching for her and failing throughout the wrinkles of time.

Very soon, they can have an end.


End file.
